Inspiration on the Vajrayana Path (if words too small, set browser to magnify to 125%)

Menu

Archive | February 2012

These 30 verses are very exquisite treasures of the View of Buddhism in its essence. Even if you don’t understand, merely the effort to try to read it and understand it will plant the seeds for future insights and increase your merits. I have met many people nowadays who seem to evade the essential topics of Dharma such as right view. They give the excuse that it is too profound or beyond their level. They would prefer to stick only to the methods they are accustomed to practising. However, i think that there shouldn’t be any hesitation towards trying to understand the ultimate teachings of Buddha. We should treasure our opportunity to do so while we still have it. Why have fear of not understanding? It may just be some kind of pride or aversion to having one’s own views challenged.

Many people also practice the Dharma with either a view of eternalism/nihilism, either things ‘exist’ or don’t ‘exist’ and they do not really understand the Dharma in a deeper way. Which is a great pity because for most educated people or even semi-educated people nowadays, even to acquire an intellectual understanding of the premises of the essence of dharma is completely possible and will do so much benefit for their practice and future lives. I am so confident that the core message of the Buddha has immense blessings and future repercussions if only you will make the effort to penetrate it. Even if you do not have realisations, it will still be of far-reaching import. Please trust in this. The below two posts are easy to understand, short and clear. If you can try to read and make an effort to understand, you can at least understand some parts. Then when future conditions ripen, you may understand other parts later. It is so important to do this.

Happy Belated Losar to all Dharma Friends out there. I hope your practices are progressing well !

Note: In the last part, it is said that ‘everything is consciousness-only’, but according to the view of Buddhism Madhyamika, even the ‘consciousness’ should not be solidified and taken as existing/real/substantial. Even consciousness itself is empty by nature. You should bear this in mind when you read these 30 stanzas as it is not evident.

1

Everything that is taken as a self;
Everything that is taken as other:
These are simply changing forms of consciousness.

The store consciousness* holds the seeds of all past experience.
Within it are the forms of grasping
And the dwelling places of the unknown.
It always arises with touch, awareness, recognition, concept, and desire.

4

The store consciousness* is clear and undefinable.
Like a great river, it is always changing.
Neither pleasant nor unpleasant, when one becomes fully realized, it ceases to exist.

5

The second transformation of consciousness is called thinking consciousness.
It evolves by taking the store consciousness* as object and support.
Its essential nature is to generate thoughts.

6

The thinking consciousness
Is always obscured by four defilements:
Self-regard, self-delusion, self-pride, and self-love.

7

The thinking consciousness also arises with the mental factors
Of touch, awareness, recognition, concept, and desire.
This consciousness ceases when one becomes realized.
It also falls away when consciousness is impaired,
And when one is fully present.
8

The third transformation of consciousness
Is the active perception of sense objects.
These can be good, bad, or indifferent in character.

9

This active consciousness arises with three kinds of mental functions: Those that are universal, those that are specific, and those that are beneficial.
It is also associated with primary and secondary defilements
And the three kinds of feeling.

Remorse, sleepiness, reasoning, and analysis
Are factors which can be either defiled or undefiled.

15

The five sense consciousnesses arise in the store consciousness*
Together or separately, depending on causes and conditions,
Just like waves arise in water.

16

Thought consciousness manifests at all times,
Except for those born in the realms of beings without thought,
Those in the formless trances, and those who are unconscious.

17

These three transformations of consciousness
Are just the distinction of subject and object, self and other–
They do not really exist.
All things are nothing but forms of consciousness.

18

Since the storehouse consciousness contains all seeds,
These transformations of consciousness arise
And proceed based upon mutual influence.
On account of this, discrimination of self and other arises,

19

All actions leave traces,
And because of grasping at self and other,
Once one seed has been exhausted, another arises.

20

That which is differentiated
In terms of self and other,
Or by whatever sort of discrimination,
That is just mental projection:
It does not exist at all

21

Appearances themselves
Which arise dependently through causes and conditions
Exist, but only in a partial and dependent way.

22

Ultimately, perfect nature, the fully real, arises
When there is an absence of mental projection onto appearances.
For that reason, the fully real is neither the same nor different from appearances.
If the perfected nature is not seen, the dependent nature is not seen either.

23

Corresponding to the threefold nature,
There is a threefold absence of self-nature.
This absence of self-nature of all dharmas
Is the secret essence of the Buddha’s teachings.

24

Projections are without self-nature by definition.
Appearances too are without self-nature because they are not
self-existent.
Perfect nature is without any differentiation whatsoever.

25

The true nature of consciousness only
Is the true nature of all dharmas.
Remaining as it is at all times, it is Suchness.

26

As long as consciousness does not see
That subject-object distinctions are simply forms of consciousness
Attachment to twofold grasping will never cease

27

By merely thinking
The objects one perceives are forms of consciousness
One does not realize consciousness only

28

One realizes consciousness only
When the mind no longer seizes on any object
When there is nothing to be grasped, there is no grasping
Then one knows – everything is consciousness only.

29

That is the supreme, world-transcending knowledge
Where one has no mind that knows
And no object that is known
Abandoning twofold grasping
The storehouse consciousness is emptied

30

That alone is the pure, primordial reality
Beyond thought, auspicious, unchanging
It is the blissful body of liberation
The dharmakaya nature of the enlightened ones

As I mentioned earlier, many texts on emptiness state that the understanding of dependent origination is the most powerful means of arriving at the knowledge of emptiness. When, as a result of engaging in deep meditation on emptiness, we fail to find the intrinsic reality of the object of our focus, we do not conclude from this that the object in question does not exist at all. Instead, we deduce that since our critical analysis has failed to find the true, independent existence of the object, its existence or reality must be understood only as dependent origination. Therefore, a genuine understanding of emptiness must really take place. The moment we reflect upon our understanding of the emptiness of inherent existence, that very understanding will indicate that things exist. it is almost as if when we hear the word ’emptiness’ we should instantly recognise its implication, which is that of existing by means of dependent origination. A genuine understanding of emptiness, therefore, is said to be that in which one understands emptiness in terms of dependent origination.

A similar point is raised by Nagarjuna in his Precious Garland, where he explains the emptiness or selflessness of ‘person’ by a process of reductive analysis. This involves exploring how the person is neither the earth element nor the water element, fire element and so on. When this reductive process fails to find something called ‘person’ that is independent of these various elements, and also fails to identify the person with any of these elements, Nagarjuna raises the question: where, then, is the person? He does not immediately conclude by saying, ‘Therefore “person” does not exist.’ Rather, he refers to the idea of dependent origination, stating that: ‘The person is therefore dependent upon the aggregation of the six elements.’ Thus he is not negating the fact that the ‘person’ does exist and is real and undergoes experiences of pain and pleasure.

From my own experience I know that I exist; I know that I have non-deluded experiences of pain and pleasure. Yet when I search for the entity called ‘self’ or ‘I’ among the various elements that together constitute my existence, I cannot find anything that appears to possess intrinsic, independent reality. This is why Nagarjuna concludes that we can understand a person’s existence only in terms of the principle of dependent origination.

At this point some people may raise the following objection: isn’t saying that all phenomena are devoid of inherent existence tantamount to saying that nothing exists? Nagarjuna’s response is to state that by ’emptiness’ we do not mean a mere nothingness; rather, by ’emptiness’ we mean dependent origination. In this way Nagarjuna’s teaching on emptiness transcends the extremes of absolutism and nihilism. By rejecting intrinsic, independent existence his view transcends absolutism; and by stating that things and events do exist, albeit as dependent originations, he transcends the extreme of nihilism. This transcendence of the two extremes of absolutism and nihilism represents the true Middle Way.

At this point it may be helpful to reflect a little on the different levels of meaning of the principle of dependent origination. On one level dependent origination refers to the nature of things and events as understood in terms of their dependence upon causes and conditions. On another level this dependence can be understood more in terms of mutual dependence. For example, there is a mutuality of concepts between, say, long and short, in which something is posited as ‘long’ in relation to something else that is ‘short’. Similarly, things and events have both parts and a whole; the whole is constituted of the parts, and the parts are posited in relation to the whole.

On another level still, the principle of dependent origination relates to the subject, which is the conceptual mind that creates designation, appellations, labels and so on. As we have briefly discussed before, when we give something a label or a name we generally tend to assume that the labelled object has some kind of true, independent existence. Yet when we search for the true existence or essence of the thing in question, we always fail to find it. Our conclusion, therefore, is that while things do exist on the conventional level, they do not possess ultimate, objective reality. Rather, their existence can only be posited as a mere appellation, designation or label. According to Nagarjuna, these three levels of meaning in the principle of dependent origination pervade our entire spectrum of reality.

There was a master staying in a hermitage who was robbed one night by a thief. In his compassion, the master gave the thief everything he had. Later, after the thief had left, the master was gazing at the perfect moon in the sky and said to himself, ‘Poor guy, I wish I could also give you the moon.”

What we already have, like the ability to see, to breathe, to feel, to walk, to hear, to taste are already the most incredible, amazing and beautiful miracles on earth. They are simple and already freely available. Do you know that? Appreciate your life, be thankful for everything you have because nothing lasts forever.